semi option from package.json is ignored about cra-generate

[rthor]

Ahh good catch! Will fix as soon as I have time. Unless you want to submit a PR 😉

[hjaltisan]

Hmm.

The Problem

The way I see it this is the order of importance:

1. User explicitly X via the cli command
2. X is taken from packages.json
3. X is taken from defaultOptions (in config.js)

Given that X = whether or not to use semicolons,
Always take the option from 1, if it doesn't exist there than take the option from 2 and so on.

Solutions?

use_semicolons: user specifies via cli that he wants semicolons
skip_semicolons: user specifies via cli that he doesn't want semicolons
default: user wants to use the settings from packages.json or defaultOptions

Commander boolean flag options:

1. option('-s, --semi, 'use semicolons)
   1. use_semicolons: cra-generate -s demo
   2. skip_semicolons: ... not possible!
   3. default: cra-generate demo

---

2. option('--no-semi', 'skip semicolons)
   1. use_semicolons: ... not possible!
   2. skip_semicolons: cra-generate --no-semi demo
   3. default: cra-generate demo

---

3. option('-s, --semi [bool]', 'either true or false')
   1. use_semicolons: cra-generate -s true demo
   2. skip_semicolons: cra-generate -s false demo
   3. default: cra-generate demo

---

4. option('-s, --semicolons, 'use semicolons') and option('--no-semi', 'skip semicolons')
   1. use_semicolons: cra-generate -s demo
   2. skip_semicolons: cra-generate --no-semi demo
   3. default: cra-generate demo

---

Issues

1. No way to explicitly state that the user doesn't want semicolons
2. No way to explicitly state that the user wants semicolons
3. Solves the problem, but isn't really pretty.
4. Solves the problem, is prettier, but introduces a new issue cra-generate -s --no-semi demo...

---

And of course we get the same problem for -f...
What solution would you go with?
Or is there some other better solution that I am missing?
The way I see it solution 3 is the best solution, even though it is quite unusual. People are probably used to boolean flags to work like 1 or 2. But if we go with either of those, then we have to either always ignore packages.json or not offer the user to specify all options via cli...

[rthor]

I think it would be better to keep certain config values only in package.json. F.ex. the semicolon thing is something that you want to set globally for the entire project and you don't want any one component behaving differently.

Regarding the --functional flag. Maybe it should be possible to set a default type in the config, eg functional/classical and the explicitly pick a type in the cli tool. Eg

{
  "craGenerate": {
    "defaultType": "functional",
    "semi": false
  }
}

$ cra-generate --classical FooBar

This way, the semicolon thing will be config/default only, and we'll remove it from the flags list. And the functional flag will now adhere to the config/defaults but can be overridden explicitly if need be.